I used to live underwater. I opened with that to grab your attention, but it's also true. While in the U.S. Navy, I was a crew member of a 688 class fast-attack submarine out of Norfolk.
Since most people have no experience with submarines and have never met a submariner, they are often curious but have to start the questions with something generic like "So... uh... what was that like?"
"Uh... well... it sucked" is the short and sweet answer. If I have time to explain then I usually compare life on a sub to other jobs except that on a submarine, it's a lot more extreme.
You know how when you start a new job, you're kind of excited. Maybe you just got out of school and you're finally doing what you've been trained to do. You look forward to learning what you need to learn in order to do a good job. But after you've done the job for a while and you have it down pat, the exciting luster fades.
Life on board a submarine follows the same arc except to the extreme. After I completed about two years of training, I was ready to drive a nuclear powered sub through the Caribbean, to practice war games and other exercises that prepared us for a deployment, stopping at places like Puerto Rico. We then deployed to the Mediterranean, visiting various countries from Gibraltar to Greece. I turned 21 years old in Italy. All pretty exciting for a kid who had wondered if he would ever make it out of Nowhere, Kan.
But like with any job, the excitement faded. Three months into my second deployment I did a four week stint under water and I really began to miss everything. I missed sunlight, my home, my wife. I missed my friends and the smell of women (the submarine force is still all male and yes, after four weeks under, it stinks to THE highest heaven). I had been a crew member of the U.S.S. Jacksonville for three years. The luster was completely gone. It sucked more than any other job because I was still stuck even though I was through.
I got out of the Navy in 2000 and within two years I decided to come to the University. My son was born spring break of my freshman year. He's a real good kid with good timing like that.
I am my son's primary care giver. My wife wishes she could spend more time with him but because of her high earning capacity as a computer programmer and the flexibility I experience as a student, it makes sense that I be the one who tends to him most of the time while she's at work.
He takes up about half my time and the pursuit of a journalism degree takes up the other half. Throw in my creative writing degree, the household chores, the four dogs, the cat, the cars and the gold fish (who apparently don't even want to live) and you might begin to understand why I say I went from living underwater to being in over my head.